The New Audi A3 Is Amess With In-Car Subscriptions [Update]
www.motor1.com
The 2025 Audi A3 looks sharper and comes with more tech, but you will have to pay a subscription for some basic in-car features.

So far there’s subscriptions for cruise control, adaptive beams, various navigation options, apple/google integration and my favorite, dual-zone climate.

  • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    4 months ago

    The subscription model for features on a car is shitty for a host of reasons, but at least they’re still offering the option to buy them outright like normal. If you really value ownership then at least you can purchase the car and buy these addons up front.

    The problem isn’t just the subscription model itself, the problem is the means by which they enforce it: by infecting your car with DRM.

    When you buy a thing, you’re supposed to own that thing, which means you have every right to modify it in any way you see fit – including to “unlock” any physical capabilities of it that aren’t enabled to begin with.

    What these car companies – even ones offering to unlock your property for a “one-time” fee – are doing is trying to destroy your property rights, and that ought to be entirely unacceptable to everyone.

    • blackn1ght@feddit.ukEnglish
      13·
      4 months ago

      I hear you, but the vast majority of Audi customers just won’t care about this DRM or property rights on their car. If they’re leasing then it’s irrelevant as it’s never their car in the first place. It just won’t even be something that they even consider.

      What their customers will care about is the fact that they don’t have to financially commit to getting an “optional extra” up front, but instead can pick and choose when they want to use it.

      • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        4 months ago

        Yeah, that’s why the correct solution is legislative: the DMCA needs to be repealed and the practice of hijacking people’s property with DRM needs to be outlawed instead.